266 
In the Heart of Africa 
the lower serving partly as a cargo hold and partly as quarters 
for the black passengers and crew. On the upper level there is 
accommodation for Europeans. There are about sixteen cabins 
amidships, arranged in two rows, with their doors and ports 
opening on to the promenade deck, a passage way of about one 
and a half metres width encircling the whole vessel. We took 
our meals in a spacious part of the foreship, behind the captain’s 
cabin, where there was a full passage for the air, and protection 
from the rain in the shape of curtains which could be let down. 
Taken all in all, the Flandre greatly surpassed our expectations 
with regard to the comfort of a Congo steamer. Our feeling of 
gratitude was still further increased by the kindness of the 
Government in having placed the steamer exclusively at our dis¬ 
posal. Thus, excepting ourselves, there were only four Belgians 
who had accepted my offer of a passage and had come aboard 
with us. 
Basoko is one kilometre distant from the confluence of the 
Congo and the Aruwimi. So we still awaited the great moment 
when we should gaze on the mightiest river of the continent, 
yet the actual sight of it was far less impressive to us than it 
seemed to have been to the earlier trans-African travellers 
Stanley and Count Gotzen. Our fourteen days’ passage down 
the Aruwimi had accustomed us to the sight of huge expanses 
of water, so that, naturally, we could scarcely be seized with 
the same feelings that filled our predecessors at the sight of the 
Congo after their long years of hardship, privation, famine and 
danger. Thus, we hardly noticed the Congo, or any particular 
difference between the familiar picture of the lower Aruwimi and 
this new stream, which did not appear much broader. The reason 
of this lies mainly in the fact that during our entire Congo 
passage we never received the full impression of its immense 
breadth and might, although at its widest spot it exceeds thirty 
kilometres, for countless islands, sometimes a mile in length, 
succeed one another in an almost unbroken chain and obstruct the 
view. 
The district chief at Basoko had recommended us to inspect 
